Radiator-core



F. M. OPITZ.

RADIATOR CORE.

10N FILED Nov 1 APPLICAT (M1919. 1,381,655. v Patented June 14, 1921.

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A @ZM @E lili il) F. M. OPITZ.

RADIATOR CORE.

APPLICATION FILED Nov. I0. 1919.

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RADIATOR-CORE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 14, 1921.

Application led November 10, 1919. Serial No. 336,934.

To all w hom t may concern Be it known that I, Flinn M. OPrrz, a citizen of' the United States, residing at Racine, in the county of Racine and tate of IVisconsu, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Radiator-Cores, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forminv a part of this specification.

ily' invention relates to radiator cores and to the method of' making the same, the radiator being of that type which employs a series of hollow tubes which are arranged preferably in parallel relation between two water chambers, the one for the incoming warm water, and the other for the outgoing cool water.

While the active elements are in the form of tubes I form the front or face of the core With a cellular formation giving it the appearance of a cellular radiator. I have given this type of radiator the name of cellutubulan A principal object of my invention is to provide such a radiator wherein the water conducting sections may be constructed of very thin sheet metal, presenting a maximum cooling surface to the air-currents passing and which sections when assembled into a radiator make a strong, sturdy structure, employing a minimum of metal in its construction, and which may be economically manufactured and which will give a minimum of trouble in service.

It has been found in practice that considerable difficulty has been experienced with the radiators of the rior art when used in very cold weather since, if the water freezes, the containin tubular sections are not sufficiently flexib e to take up the expansion of Volume due to the conversion of the water from a Huid to the solid'form of ice, and therefore, these tubes have been caused to rupture and the radiators have,

been subsequently caused to leak; it is another object of my invention, therefore, to provide a tubular core having sufficient elasticity in its walls, so that the danger of rupture due to the freezing of the contained water will be practically eliminated.

It is a further object of my invention to provide an improved sheet metal radiator core, having corrugated water conducting tubes which are of such formation as to present an extensive cooling surface re1ative to the amount of contained water, and 1n order to accomplish this I provide flattened tubes which are constructed b fastening together two identically forme cpmplementary sheet metal sections, face to face, the` edges being sealed together, the sald lsections preferably having longitudinal crimps or corrugations. The flattened tube'is mounted in a supporting structure consisting of corrugated fin units constructed of sheet metal which units are horizontally folded to make cellularly formed corrugations. The corrugated units are longitudinally creased or impressed on one side to form a trough-like surface on one of the corrugated sides of the fin unit, which trough-like surface is adapted to engage and support the cooperating outside wall of the above mentioned flattened tube section.

Another object of my invention is to proyide a process of manufacture for the mak ing of my improved radiator cores, by virtue of which the said cores are produced using a minimumof metal, and in which the core walls are of substantially the same thickness as the original metal sheet, and possess the above mentioned and other advantages which will later be made apparent from the description of my invention which follows, and in which description reference will be made to the following figures in which like reference characters will be used to designate like parts. Referring now to the figures:

Figure 1 shows a plan view of a radiator core embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 shows a front elevation of the radiator core illustrated in Fig. l;

Fi 3 shows an isometric view of one of the sieet metal units, two of which when placed together form a radiator water tube or channel;

Fig. 4 shows an isometric view of a fin unit, two of which are required to hold the radiator tube section, and which are adapted to form air-flues for the passage of aircurrents through the radiator;

Fig. 5 is a horizontal section of the radiator core assembly of Fig. 2 taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is a horizontal sectional view of the radiator core assembly illustrated in Fig. 2 taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 2;

ig. 7 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the radiator core assembly, taken on the,

line 7-7 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 8 shows a plan view of a pair of tube units or halves and a pair of fin units, which are adapted to form a core section, the two tube units being adapted to be brought together to form a water containing tube and the fin units being adapted to be brought together to securely clamp the intervening tube in place, the several parts illustrated in l into unitary sections by placing two such this gure being shown slightly separated in order to illustrate vthe assembly of the several parts; and

Fig. 9is a front elevation of a filler or spacing unit.

According to my invention I form the vertical water tubes of complementary gutter members having flat joining flanges. Between and in contact with these gutter members I provide spacing strips which perform the usual function of mechanically supporting and protecting the thin-,tubes and of radiating and conducting heat; from thev .These filler or spacin strips extend both front and back beyon the'edges of the tubes. These strips are folded back and forth to form a regular pattern such as a hexagonal figure or a half of the same, so that when these strips are placed in contact they form lat front and reara 'cellular structure. Preferably vthese strips are formed strips back to back and joining the strips at top and bottom.

Each strip is channeled at its central part to receive or embed half of the water tube.

The result of this construction'is that theV to back of the core forming air channels the air channels being bounded by the filler strips which serve at the same time as radiating fins. The water tubes run vertically through the air channels and are hidden behind the fronts of the radiating fins.

The tubes are made of identical halves and the filler or radiating sections on each side of the'tube are identical, being merely reversed. As a consequence my radiator core may be made up of two parts only, appearing in multiple, namely the filler strip assembled in' pairs to make a filler or spacing unit and the gutter strip, two of which are assembled as complementary halves to form a tube.

Referring to the drawings, and in particular to Fig. 4 wherein I show a view ofl a points 10 and 11, this longitudinal groove being deeper at portions 12 and 13 than at the intermediate ridge 14, provided at an intermediate portion and at steps 15 and 16, which are formed at the outer edges of the groove. A cross-sectional view giving the configuration of the longitudinal grooves is shown in Fig. 8 for eachof the fin units A and B.

The sheet of metal folded as above described and'comprisingthefin unit A, has an offset end a and a straight end b,the end a of iin unit being adapted to nestor mesh with an end b of an adjacent unit as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 7.-v yThe finished filler strips while similar, arealternately reversed, end for end. Y

The filler strips as illustrated are formedl of a continuous stripof sheet metal which is preferably stamped progressively vin a stamping machine, which machine after forming a predetermined lengthy of such strip cuts o a unitary length. The ends are thenilanged as at a and the fin or filler sections are finished ready to assemble in pairs back to back as illustrated in Fig. 9 to form iin or filler units D.

The water tubes or channels are also formed of strips of sheet metal which are preferably rolled by a pair` of rolls into the channel or gutter shape illustrated in Figs. 3 and 8 and then cut into 'suitable lengths. These gutters or channels may be formed by stamping suitable lengths of strip if desired. The units or channels C .have the joining margins or flanges 17 and an intermediate ridge or crease 20. The portlons 18 and 19 lying on opposite sides of the central ridge 20 provide water passageways.

As shown in Figs. 1, 5, 6 and 8 the vertical tubes are formed of two halves C facing each other and joined along the joining margins 17. f

To assemble the above described units into a core the two channel orr gutter members C are placed face to face and complementary in or filler sections D are laid on each side as illustrated in Fig. 8. The channel or gutter sections C fit into the sides of the adjacent fin or filler` sections D being embedded therein as will be apparent from the drawmgs. The central projections 14 on the filler strips A fit into the groove or crease 20 of the channel or gutter members C to center these gutters with respect to the fins or filler strips.

It will be noted that the offset portions 15 are quite shallow. These offsets are of., a depth corresponding to the thickness of the metal of the glitter members so that when the glitter section is laid into the side of the fin or filler section the joining margins 17 lie flush with the adjacent sides of the corrugations 8.

The water containing tubes are sealed at their sides where the flanges 17 are brought into contact, by dipping the edges of an assembly of radiator core sections such as that illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7, into melted solder, portions of the assembly which are immersed being the joined edges 25 of the corrugations 8, of the fin units and the joined faces of the flange 17 of the tube units C, together with the clamping steps 15 of the inclosed fins, the two edges of the core assembly being alternately dipped into the melted solder' to seal lall of the end flanges of the fin and tube units securely together. A plurality of core sections such as the sect-ions D, E, and F being assembled together, with the adjoining portions of their fin extensions 9, soldered together, the lapped ends a and b of the adjoining units are joined as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 7, these lapped ends likewise being soldered t0- gether forming a unitary assembly of cellular supporting air-fines G, carrying integrally formed water tubes and which tubes are left open at their top and bottom ends to provide at the top of the assembly, as illustrated in Fig. 1, openings for incoming warm water to flow into the tubes 21 and 22, and likewise providing similar openings at the bottom for the egress of the air-cooled water.

It will be observed that the core is thus finished at the top and bottom so that a suitable water header or box lcan be attached directly to the top and bottom of the core along the front and rear edges without further operations or special fittings.

The dipping of the faces of the core in melted solder seals the edges of the tubes front and back and unites the fins or filler units with the front of the tubes in a good mechanical and heat conducting joint. The

tubes are not joined along the central ridge 20 as there is n necessity for the same. l-lowever, said central ridges effectively prevent the collapse of the tubes.l

The core has very considerable elasticity and is peculiarly free from damage by strains such as generally occur in radiator cores employed for trucks or tractors, to which use this core is particularly adapted.

It will be noted that the joint or seam between the fins at the faces 8 lies in the same plane as the joint or seam between the joining margins 17 of the tube. A very important function flows from this result, namely that a section may be taken out by melting the solder and pushing the section out like a drawer. This is possible because the two halves of the tube will slide over each other and further because the closure for the tubes with the water boxes is made at top and bottom by the ns as is clearly apparent from Figs. l and 2. This permlts a radiator to be repaired if any part is damaged by withdrawing one or more sections and replacingthem with new sectionsa ver desirable result.

Iiaving thus described my mventlon as embodied in a specific structure, I am aware that numerous and extensive departures may be made from the embodiment herein illustrated and described, without departing from the spirit of my invention, and such modifications are contemplated.

I claim:

1. In combination, a pair of gutter members. havin flat joining margins lying in contact to orm a tube, a pair of filler strips corrugated into a regular pattern, the corrugations of each strip being indented to embed said gutter members, the front and back edges of the filler strips extending in front and back of the joining margins and lying in contact, said joining'margins and said extensions of the corrugations being joined by solder, the joints between the margins of the gutters and between the extensions of the corrugations lying in the same plane.

2. In combination, a pair of gutter members having at joining margins, said gutter members having their joimng faces lying in contact to form a tube, a corrugated facing strip lying on each side of the tube, the corrugations on said strip being reduced at the central part to embed the tube and the outer edges of the corrugations being unreduced whereby they are brought into contact in substantially the same plane as adjoining faces on said gutter members the unreduced edges of the corrugations an the joining faces of the gutter members being joined b solder.

3. In com ination, a pair of corrugated strips bent back and forth to form halves of a closed pattern such as a hexagon, said strips being laid back to back with the bottoms of the corrugations in contact, the upper and lower ends of the strips being joined to form a face at substantiall right angles to the length of the strips, t e tops of the corrugations being reduced longitudinally along the central part of the strips to embed the parts of water tubes, said water tubes having joining faces lying in the planes of the ends of the tops of the corrugations.

4. In combination, a pair of gutter members forming tube halves, a pair of corruated strips, the corrugations of each strip eing indented to receivefand embed a gutter member, the ed es of the corrugatlons a filling ofsolder 'oining the edges of corrugations where t ey are "incontact, and the edges of the gutters, to define water tubes, said corrugated lsheets defining transverse air passages.

`5. In a radiator, 'a series of tubes each comprising a pair of complementary gutters having flat joinin margins substantially at the center of t e front and rear of each tube, and filler strips defining air cellsv and lying between adjacent tubes 1nl contact rof t with the side walls of ad'acent gutters, said Acomprising 'a pair'of complementary gutters having fiat .jolmng margins substantiall at the center .of the front and rear of eac tube, and filler strips defining air cells and ling between adjacent tubes 1n contact with t e side walls of adjacent gutters, said ller strips being joined to eachother on joining marginsflylng in the same planes as the joining margins of the gutters, said ller strips comletely embedding the joining margins e contiguous gutters. l

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name'this 5 day of November, A. D. 1919.

t FRED M. oPITz. 

